6 Reasons Why Xbox Live is Failing 10 Years Later

This past week was the celebration for Xbox Live’s 10 year anniversary. While this is the PlayStation University, congratulations are in store for the service that brought online gaming to the forefront of the console experience first off. Before Xbox Live’s inception on the original Xbox, online interactions were mostly limited to the PC community. PlayStation Network is still much younger than its Microsoft counterpart, but Xbox Live could learn a thing or two from how Sony has been running its online portal.
(Microsoft, PS Vita, PS3, Sony, Tag Invalid, Xbox, Xbox 360)

I care about what I get out of it. Live is giving me... oh, they're giving me nothing. Hmm...

Plus, on the other hand... well, I don't need to go over that again. By now, you're well aware of what Plus offers for the same price as Live. You know there's no real comparison as far as value is concerned.

"struggling to make ends meet."

You got a source for that? Or are you just another of those people talking out of their asses?

Yeah, I thought so.

Edit: @homer

I haven't stuck my head in the sand. That's stupid. Of course I want Sony to do well. But them making money doesn't mean anything to me if they're not providing the games and services I want.

Sony is in a tough spot, but they're not "failing." They're laying people off as part of a restructure, something people that keep harping on their condition seem to forget.

I'm in gaming, though, for the GAMES. As long as Sony's making the games, they'll be getting my money.(In any case, it's not as if it's the Playstation division that's killing them; it's elsewhere. With that in mind, why does it seem like people take every opportunity to make it seem the opposite is true? That's odd, isn't it?)

If my desire for good gaming and gaming features considered "fantasy land," then I think there aren't enough gamers who are with me.

@Hicken
I wish I could stick my head in the sand and ignore Sony's financial woes much like you have. Sony corp is failing. They are laying off employess left and right and their stocks are still falling. Their credit rating is one above crap. I wish I could live in your fantasy land.

How do you get any disagrees for what you said? N4G, that's how. What you said is right. Xbox Live and MS are laughing all the way to the bank. That's why Sony came out with PSN+ They want to make some of that cash from a monthly subscription.

That's the ONLY reason they made that. SDF crack me up on here. Probably because it's mostly like 15-17 year olds.

And great article.... 7 years later, and now xbox live is starting to fail to the playstation site.

Cool Story Brah.

EDIT.. LMAO at the faithful claiming that Live has ever been hacked. :D Ha ha ha ha ha ha... People getting their accounts phished is far FAR from a service getting hacked like PSN was. Brought down to it's knees and crippled.

B-b-b-but xJohnny134X had his account phished that affected nobody but himself... THAT MEANS XBOX LIVE WAS HACKED!!!

I feel bad for these children that dont know the value of the dollar...

Yes...Xbox Live is amazing and a better service than all others. Keep telling yourselves this...

And Midnight right above me ^^^ dont know if you read what you post...but your school system has definitely failed you ... as well as your parenting and anything else that was a factor in developing that pea brain you have.

I am really starting to believe that people are missing parts of their brain. In an article that talks about Sony and Ms respective services, people are bring up the fact that Sony is in a financial woe. Do you people really want Sony fail? What does tha have to do with the article? Do you know what that could seriously mean for gaming? Let Sony worry about Sony because they will be alright.

When asked to list features that makes live online vastly superior to the pen online, a person on this site wrote:

Oh brother! One person also stopped using psn entirely because it got hacked once by people who justed wanted to prove something with the hacking rather than steal. Again, oh brother!

I will say it again: when it comes to strictly gaming online, live is in no way superior to pen and that is the truth. That is no fanboy BS. For instance, say Halo 4 came out on both consoles. Would I buy it for the Xbox? No. Because I know that all I have to do is pop it in the PS3 and play. I actually wanted to play Halo 4 online, so I opted to get live for three months. It would have set me back $24. Its not a lot of money, I know. But I just payed $60 for Halo 4 which only lasted me 6 hours on heroic.

Sony's financial issues are completely relevant when discussing who is failing.

And Halo 4 would be horrible on PS3. Why? The same reasons why Live is better than PSN. Party chat allows you to speak with your friends (no 14yr old kids chatting away like on Killzone 3) and every Xbox owner has a microphone. You wouldn't talk to people on Halo 4 and people couldn't talk to you. You wouldn't enjoy multiplayer because of it. Personally, I've put about 30 hours in the Halo 4 campaign, but I plan on spending 95% of my total Halo 4 on multiplayer. Starting to get the picture?

Let's hope SONY leans from past mistakes this gen and gives Live a run for its money next gen which will force M$ to up their game. All gamers benefit.

Yea but after they were hacked i quit using PSN like i used too. a lot of my friends moved on and it was never the same. their free stuff does not matter if no one is on line or talking, the fact they do not even have proper custom music this long into the cycle just shows how much PlayStation sucks. I just bought a PC and I am loving it over my PlayStation. My PlayStation has become my Blue ray player, i still play the occasional game on it, but the fact that they can not give the consumer basic functionality is just plain sad. PSN and PlayStation sucks get over it.

Xbox Live has never been hacked. There have been PC phishing scams where people give up passwords, but never hacked. Where do you people come up with this crap? How about you provide some proof to back up your claims? Just one link, thats all Im asking.

PS Vita = party chat. As for the patches, can't confirm that, but I haven't heard much about that on Vita.

So yeah.. a handheld is offering that. PS4 is around the corner, and by then, purposefully ignorant fanboys like yourself will have to be the ones doing the waking up - or not, and keep paying for a service that is offering you stuff that other services do for free and with similar efforts.

The reason PS3's network doesn't have certain features of XBL is because of RAM and OS footprint limitations, it's not because Sony are inadequate, and the Vita proves it. Do you think Sony are just being lazy or not listening to the HUGE percentage of people who want some of these features?

I honestly hope people like you are ready to take in what you will see when PS4 hits as far as PSN goes, because I think some of you are just hell bent on dragging down Sony because of PS3's system RAM limitations.

And you'd have to be the one to prove to me that you're the closed off fanboy by telling me Xbox Live is hack free? Yep, again, ignoring the evidence and pretending like Xbox's security is so much finer, when if Anonymous wanted to, they could EASILY hack Live. If they've been there, done that with Government(!), I don't think big old Microsoft could stop them. I don't even have to ask you if you think they couldn't, because I know you do already.

Anyway, Xbox Live is bloody great as an overall service, but my main gripe with Microsoft is that they charge you for the basic right to access online games. They hold for ransom your right to access a VERY simple feature such as connecting to other players to play games, something which has been a free standard for god knows how long.

Forget all the other features, they might be worth it for a lot of people, but charging for basic access is unacceptable in my opinion. Charge for the ADVANCED features, and leave the basics for free. In fact you people need to do what PC gamers did and say "NO!" because otherwise they'll keep charging for things they don't need to and disrespect you as consumers i.e. Netflix subscription within subscription.

Besides, when you can see a service like Steam does everything XBL does and for free with MORE flexibility and MORE value, and the fact that PS+ exists, it's not hard to see who's getting short changed here.

I knew from the title a sad sony site was responsible.Ha Ha! Lemme see for less than $4.99 a month we get the very best online experience hands down on Xbox Live.

MS/XBOX continues to proctect and improve our experience all the time and is currently miles ahead of anything sony has to offer. Sony video game division lost hundreds of millions if not over a billion since the ps3. They have learned a lesson and have adopted the psn plus and soon that will be their norm otherwise they will keep falling farther and farther behind.

Nobody is going to go to psn from XBL. why would they want to go backwards to something less than.

Xbl is miles ahead of psn? Please elaborate and list all the features that psn doesn't also do. I had an Xbox and sold it because I was tired of being raped for cash by m$. Other than party chat which is a system limitation I can connect with friends and play online the same way. Please explain you're reason for wasting money to just play online when ps3, pc and Nintendo do not charge.

Just a few things you should have on ps3 but do not. Like i said my PC is my Favorite now. I had now idea how great playing your own music in a FPS could be, till now. Sony sucks, my pc even does 3D better.

@atreyu what? half of those things have nothing to do with live service but the console's hardware. xbox live offers ability to play online and cross chat, thats about it.

ps offers online play standard, some games have custome soundtracks, and a few games being marginally better on 360 doesnt change the fact they r multiplat titles who r largely the same. ps3 gets exclusive content too u kno, ala aciii. ps3 also has more exclusive games that blow most of what is available multiplat or on 360 out the water...period.

You are seriously a deluded sad little boy. Only reason Live is an inch better than PSN is because of party chat, which, by the way, is exaggerated as the best thing ever, when in fact, it's not. I've gotten about 6-7 free games for $50.00, and you just got party chat for the same price and th ability to actually play online....Yes, Live is way beyond PSN....-_-

Why is an article from "Playstation university" approved. They even write "Micro$oft" or "M$". This is not better than a random forum-post on N4G and N4G is known for the most retarded community in the web.

Trust me, if Sony could charge for to PSN they would but the truth is Sony can NOT and had no option but to make it fre. Sony loss a large amount of fan base to MS and Nintendo becuase of the ridiculus price of $600 for a PS3, the fact that were acting all arogant with statements like Nexr Gen does not start until we say so and get two jobs to afford a PS3 did not help either.

Sony has put there self in a hard place becuse they marketed the PS3 as free online and if they start chargeing for the PS4 the fans will revolt, also PSN is playing catchup to XBL so if Sony starts chargeing for PSN they will have to offer something better than XBL.

I watched forward unto dawn for free as well but it didn't cost me anything and i didn't need an xbox to see it. and if what i hear is true its coming out on disk, which means ill be able to watch it on my playstation.

Even though it won't happen, this is why I would like the PS4 to come out before the 720. In 2005, the 360 came out, and misinformed consumers were led to believe that paying to play online was the norm. If the PS4 comes out first, consumers will flock to it and slowly understand that when you buy a gaming platform, the ability to play online should come with it.

I agree completely. The issue now is that so many people are on XBOX Live that they have a community that is hard to break away from. I've been trying to talk more people into joining PSN instead. Once people come to expect free as the norm, then Microsoft might be forced to lower or eliminate mandatory costs for online play in order to become competitive. Since I've been a PC gamer for years, the idea of actually paying for something like multiplayer is just a completely foreign idea.

I said the same thing about when XBL was new, but I never looked at PS4/PSN in the way you just put it. That would be interesting, if not pathetic, in seeing how easy it is for the average person to be led down a path. I wouldn't be surprised if a percentage of people saw PS4 come out first, boasting free online connectivity, and were blown away by the money saved.

If Ms would just stop charging for online, all this fanboy BS would stop. If people would just stop paying to play their games online, all this fanbou BS would stop. I just don't understand the logic behind paying for the service. For instance: I can access YouTube freely on the psn but cant on live unless I pay for it. What?

Exactly. What have we got after paying to play online for 10 years? Barely anything that would give the money's worth. Only thing people are saying to prove it's worth paying is; the system is "secure" and never hacked (which is not true of course and it also had its share of serious problems). XBL never deserved the money people've been paying for it and still doesn't. Especially when playing online on PC and PS3 is free and when you get free games each month when you decide to pay the same amount in PSN's case. But of course, that never stopped people from claiming that PSN is an inferior service due to being free.

ConfusedBut This title makes no sense? How has Live failed 10 years later what does that mean? If Live was "failing" 10 years now 5 years ago MS would of pulled the plug on it? If Live is "failing" then why has the service gotten better year after year?

If Live was "failing" why have they provided AAA Arcade games and releasing F2P games. If Live was "failing" why do they continue patch, update, improve, secure, moderate its service?

Now the biggest one. If Live is failing then why do people continue to pay for the subscriptions and new users boom every holiday?

Yeah who ever submitted this needs to take this down its fanboy feeder. Btw those reasons hold no wait and are subjective.

If PS Plus gains mass popularity, people will eventually see that they are getting ripped off by Microsoft. Thus Microsoft will be forced to make XBL free and/or offer more value to the service...thereby directly benefiting YOU.

Live is a wonderful service, but Steam has every Live feature and then some...yet, it's free. I'd say the PSN is on-par with Live, at this point. That doesn't even include Plus, which sometimes makes me feel like I'm getting away with murder!

once again ill say it, people are only UPSET with live costing because its where they really want to be. i never see any xbox live lovers (fanboys) or whatever you chose to call them bringing up the psn network, because they simply coud care less, but i constantly hear about how live cost...why does it worry people, if you did t want it, it should be an after thought, but the truth is if xbox live were free...thats where all the crying people would be...ON XBOX LIVE...HAHAHAHAHAHA

I see plenty of xbox fanboys bring up the PSN network. The whole "renting games" argument and such. It's their justification as to why PS+ isn't worth it and xbox is. Some insecurity on both sides of the fence, and truly outside the vocal fanboy base, most people couldn't care less.

The free games you can't play after your subscription ends unless you renew. The ones you purchase you get to keep though. I believe there were one or two free ones that continued to work, but I don't recall what they were.

Except that it's not. Also, giving away free consoles has absolutely nothing to do with Xbox Live itself. Automatic updates are not essential at all, there are rarely updates to Xbox Live to begin with.

Advertisements are not even a problem. I don't even spend time on the dashboard. It may seem odd to some, but I actually use my console to play games instead of staring at the dashboard and fuming about ads. Most of them aren't even ads, they're just showing stuff that is new to Xbox Live. I agree with trials v. demos though.

And, I'm sorry, I like PS+ but the argument that you get free games is completely invalid. First, you're paying for the service. Paying in no way equals free. Second, it's only yours if you keep subscribing. So it's a paid rental, not a free game you can keep.

" I like PS+ but the argument that you get free games is completely invalid. First, you're paying for the service. Paying in no way equals free. Second, it's only yours if you keep subscribing. So it's a paid rental, not a free game you can keep. "
How is it invalid... That's the main drawing point of PSN+ is the free games and discounts... If you make that invalid than what is there to compare it with Live? Yes you keep that game as long as you subscribe... but I will pay $50 a year to get up to 7-8 free games a year to play versus $50 a year just to access multiplayer and no free games. More often than not, i will finish each games in less then 2 months and get new ones to play.

It's invalid because they aren't free. Do you pay for them? Yes. Then they aren't free. I agree, I would pay for PS+ and get a nice instant game library to play, as well as discounts, any day. That doesn't make it free.

@rpd123
I know you dont have more bubbles so im going use one to reply to you. You are right its not free, but Its a better offering and better incentives than xbox live. Dont get me wrong I have Live right now to play Halo 4, however the problem here is that im not into multiplayer gaming but I still have my netflix and Hulu account. Why do i need to have live to play single player and to access other media apps that I've already paid for? Why do i have to pay double to access Netflix? for me i have two console so i can use my PS3 for those but those who only have the xbox they are pretty much getting cheated.

I agree that it is a paid rental service like netflix and the like and you do lose the games if you stop subscribing. However what if people stop subscribing to Live? They lose online gaming, any of the apps eg. youtube and any other thing they are subscribed to like Netflix. So really the whole "not free games" is completley irrelevent

They are talking about the value of what you are getting out of the psn as opposed to live, when paying the same amount for both. Free games definitely add value. I also believe you get to keep these games.

When PSN started getting on par with Live a few years back, what does MS do? They raise the price another $10 a year. The best part is, people still pay. I can't really fault Microsoft. If anyone wants to send me $60 a year for nothing, I would take it also.

What is this for? Don't buy it if you don't like it. Shit everything the psn has done is biting off live. There just putting there own spin on it. Sony has to do what there doing to compete with live. Loosing money is not good for business, something that sony will never get through there heads.

So you logic is that Sony copy Live... how bout this then Nintendo copied the atari when home console first released, Sony then copied Nintendo with the PS1, then Microsoft copied Sony. Most product out in the world today are copies of each other, its just what kind of different innovation and uniqueness you can add to it. I agree losing money is not good, in that sense you are losing $60 a year to microsoft so that you can access live where as PSN is free to access so I wont be losing money at all...

Then explain how to play online if Xbox is all you have for gaming needs; and the argument "not my fault people can only afford one console" doesn't work here.

"Shit everything the psn has done is biting off live. There just putting there own spin on it. Sony has to do what there doing to compete with live."

One can argue "Sony is proving you don't have to rip off customers to get the same experience free elsewhere." I had live twice (Once on Xbox and once on 360) and I saw no value in paying for something that I can get better elsewhere; whether its PS2/3 or pc even without the racism and trash talking kids.

Two gamers (one ps gamer and one Xbox gamer) goes to the video game store to buy the same game at the exact same time. The both arrive to their homes at the exact same time and pop in their game disc in their respective systems at the same time. Who's drinking a beer, smoking a blunt gaming first?? The Xbox gamer. We all know this, nobody can deny it. Hacks? I've been on Xbox live 9-10 years and have never had my account hacked. Phished maybe but never hacked and the phishing didn't get me cut off live for anywhere near a week, let alone a month. Look guys, especially ps3 whiners (please please fellow gamer, get on ps3!! Please!!, it's on par with Xbox live --NO IT'S NOT!! Stop saying that bullcrap!!) it's my money and I'm gonna do what I want with it, and if I don't want to give it to Sony, so phucking be it!! Quit your whinning and go play your damn game!! Geez!! It's like the dude above said, you don't really want to be in the ps network, you're actually wanting to be on Xbox live. Otherwise you'd happily be sucking your thumbs, masturbating while you wait on your game to finish installing on that lame azz system (psn) of yours. But noo...Xbox, Xbox, Xbox is all you's thinking of. Lol end rant

"Hacks? I've been on Xbox live 9-10 years and have never had my account hacked. Phished maybe but never hacked and the phishing didn't get me cut off live for anywhere near a week, let alone a month."

I've known people (myself included) who was hacked from Live; called customer service, and all we received was a "sorry," called a second time and someone who you can tell didn't speak fluent English answered and still acted like they couldn't do anything; and this was 3 weeks after purchasing Live; And If you want to take it further, it was an email I had back when I was in high school (1999). For the PSN hack, yes it was frustrating however I had plenty of offline games at the time I played, completed, and when PSN was back up again yes I did go back online; but what happened Xmas of 2007 on live again?

"It's like the dude above said, you don't really want to be in the ps network, you're actually wanting to be on Xbox live."

If I wanted to be on Xbox Live, I'd pay and be on Live, not PSN. When I was on Live if I wasn't judged for my nationality I was a target for mouthy teens and kids who cursed when their parents weren't around. I refuse to pay to be talked down upon when I can go outside and get that for free.

"it's my money and I'm gonna do what I want with it, and if I don't want to give it to Sony, so phucking be it!! Quit your whinning and go play your damn game!! Geez!!"

Exactly, it's "my" money and I chose to spend it on something I like and feel comfortable with - PS3.

"Otherwise you'd happily be sucking your thumbs, masturbating while you wait on your game to finish installing on that lame azz system (psn) of yours. But noo...Xbox, Xbox, Xbox is all you's thinking of."

Is that what you're doing right now instead of gaming on your 360? I'm waiting in line to purchase something and your the one going on about how you favor Live over PSN; from your rant it seems your trying to make up for something - especially with an account that was made less than 20 days ago. Your attitude is a big reason why I'm glad I left Live alone after Microsoft refused to help.

The one thing that always pissed me off about Xbox Live is for a lot of demos you have to have Gold in order to play them. They are demos and should be completely free to everyone! Along with the online play, I am not innocent, as I used to be big into Xbox Live since it first started on xbox and then went a little into the 360. But when I got a PS3 that changed everything and the introduction of PS+ just completely destroyed the idea for me to ever have live again even at that time I did not have it anyway.

XBL is failing?! I had no idea this was the case. Who was this conclusion reached? I do understand that some do not like the idea of M$ profiting from a service they think should be offered for "Free". But I don't understand what is meant by "failing" if the membership continues to grow along with the profits. PSN+ is here because XBL is so successful.

After 5 years of tenure, I'm growing tired of paying for Live. Still amazed that people disagree and say that I should be paying for Live...

Don't get me wrong, I love it and think the service is great, but at the end of the day I know I'm being charged for features I never use. They need to go down to a plan-level of services to offer. If I want all the Live extra stuff, then I ought to pay for it...If I just want to download occasional games and demos + play online then it ought to be free. It's that simple.

I expect a hell of a lot more regarding next gen's Xbox Live successor...the value better be there or it needs to be free. It's costing gamers a bit more than it should. And a 2 day pass included in some games is a slap in the face when I've seen 2 week passes included as well.

So next gen when sony makes ps plus mandatory than I suppose the thinking is its ms fault. Screw off ps and ps uni i will do what i want and will with my own money and make my own decisions and dont need some biased site to shove there religion down my throat.

To people that say PS+ its a rental service-well techically it is.But I judge it this way,when I subscribed I think -Ok,im paying $50 for lets say LBP2 & Infamous2 and the rest of the games for the whole year are FREE.Its been 6 years I live in Canada & boy I see so many brainwashed people here that bend over.People If you wanna save money there are many ways enough using the brain. There is difference between spending money(PS PLUS) & wasting money (LIVE) My Opinion.

Some of the arguments about PSN and Live seem "bandwagoned" and not from actual experiences, or the majority over dramatize a non existent situation. When (if) I post something about PSN or Live it's from a personal standpoint and I also try not to downplay something outside something negative I had to deal with - in this case Live with the racist kids and people half my age talking trash. Yes I do favor PSN over Live however I'm not going to the extreme some do just to prove my decision.

However I blame the authors more for these kind of stories than the people replying because they get some kick out of starting flame wars over the same garbage weekly.

Playstation offers a great free online service but Live is vastly superior in terms of functionality, presentation and most multimedia functions albeit way WAY overpriced.

Playststion Plus is an amazing concept but lacks the online MP features I want to warrant a purchase. Free games and savings are great but most of them I have no interest in. I want better voice chat, faster messaging, faster updates/downloads, and appealing presentation and navigation.

I find I'm often annoyed communicating on PSN, everything is slow and/or the voices are low quality, just responding to a message and getting back to games requires around 6-7 steps with loading, on Live its 3 and instant. Also, too many games on PSN have voice chat problem requiring patches that arrive months later if ever.

IMO as an owner of both consoles and a previous Plus member and current Gold member.

isnt faster download/upload dependant on you internet speed? I agree with you, Live functionality is better than PSN, however it is not that much better. Free games are free games regardless of if you like them or already have them. For people like me I own a lot of the games that they offered for free but guess what? its not all about me. There are 70 million people with PS3 and I bet there's a very high percentage of those do not have all the games that the PSN+ gave away. Sony also gave away games that I would never thought about ever buying, a good example is Lara Croft Guardian of Light. I cant believe this game was out there and I never even heard about it.

So PS+ experience vary then from person to person? So would you say that PS+ has more value for new adopter of ps3? what about the Hardcore fan who buys a lot games new since ps1, PS+ actually doesn't provide any real value?

It seems to me that this site has a lot of PS hardcore fans, and they always tout about getting free games like infamouse, LBP, or RDR from Ps+ for example. So I was wondering, why didn't they buy those games new on release? Wouldnt that be more profitable for Sony rather than waiting for Sony to put them on PS+ for "free"?

Now about functionality. If you use psn and live every day, wouldnt you want a service with better, convenient, efficient, more informative, integrated functionalities? the better functionality service would feel even better over time as you use it every day right?

what people do don't really reflect what they claimed on here now do they?

In regards the Internet connection, both of my systems use the same one, connected via ethernet...

Not sure if 360s are smaller files but every system update/game update, demo down load, etc take significantly longer on PS3 (Movies rentals are faster, browser is better, etc on Live) That's not even my main issue with it, PSN is just slower and more cumbersome in every regard especially when communicating with friends online.

I think overall PSN a great free service, just that you do get superior sevice with Live...not $60 better though. To me Live is worth 30 bucks a year, in that I'd pay 30 bucks a year to have a regular PSN identical to Live. Live is just so much more polished, you can tell a lot of thought and money has gone into it.

Yeah but when PS4 has X Game Chat That doesn't mean Next gen Xbox Live be will exactly the same as now? You need to get off this fanboy stuff man its old.

PS4 will offer even greater value with PSN+ come next gen along with improved everything interface navigation and overall speed we no that and thats know brainer.

MS learned allot this gen therefor can offer up something that possibly won't be seen on other consoles come next gen like they have this gen and before it. You can't sit there and expect MS next gen offerings to stay the same come...well...probably holiday 2013.

Sony would be stupid not to charge for online next gen. I'm sure they'll have a two tiered paid subscription model and one version will be much cheaper than Live but still cost money.

Really, it's just 100s of millions of dollars in revenues that they're not capitalizing on. The only reason they haven't charged this gen is because PSN at launch was frankly terrible, and PS3 struggled for the first 2 years. Charging later would have upset existing users too much.

But with a new gen everything kind of resets in terms of expectations.

Is failing Xbox Live generating billions of dollars for MS...Is that failing?

While Sony is yet to turn a profit on the PSN?

Okay...then I guess it's failing.

Sony is jealous of MS, because they went with the popular free gaming service, but is paying the price w/ red ink.

While MS took a less popular approach and went with a subscription model, and are reaping the benefits with black ink...

Red ink= Kills a company Black ink= Lets a company stay in business and grow.

Sometimes the best choice isn't the most popular, but for survival it is a must.

Sony has had a lot of finance problems lately... Maybe they could use a few more customers switch to their Playstation plus model? Oh wait that's a pay service right? That will eventually phase out the free service probably next gen...

"Is failing Xbox Live generating billions of dollars for MS...Is that failing?" Oh Live is serving its porpuse alright. Deepen MS pockets by taking advantage of 360 owners that have no choice but to pay to play online. I dont play games to give any company money. I play games because its my hobbie and I refuse to pay to play online. I dont give 2 shits about Sony, MS or Nintendo financials. Fuck'em and fuck this industry that is constanly trying to take advantage of me!

Yes. Its failing the consumer. Stop speaking as if the money deepening their pockets benefits you.

For survival it is a must? 360 was outselling ps3. Thus more games purchased. Plus PC title sales. What survival do you speak of? Seems Microsoft is just continuing to pad their pockets at your expense.

People used to say and still say that Xbox Live is better. But it should be if it's chargeable. And is it really anyway? Sony redeemed any accusations of overpricing their console this generation with free online play. That's lucky because Move was in danger of making Sony look like half hearted latecomers to motion gaming even though they have the Eyecamera which launched back on the PS2. A console with Uncharted on its books didn't have to try so hard to be just like a souped up version of the Wii.

Both services are good imho. PSN is better than XBL in many ways, so is XBL better than PSN in other ways. I don't even have an Xbox, but I envy them for a few things, but so do they I guess. It only helps to improve every online service if there's competition, both companies are trying to have the best online service and we can all profit from that, someone should write an article about that!